STILL HOPEFUL?
The Bush administration left office almost a year ago. Obama and his cronies inherited a $700 billion bailout, two wars costing billions of dollars, policies and laws that allow Americans to be wiretapped without a warrant, detained without just cause, and property seized for no reason even if we are beyond suspicion of committing a crime. But the hope hasn’t faded among Obama’s nation of devoted followers.

My inbox no longer flutters with email messages urging me to sign a petition or take action against the wars, the continued erosion of our freedoms, or decisions that worsen the economic crisis. In years past, the same people that sent me messages, jokes, and requests to sign petitions are tight-lipped on the Obama’s administration well-made bed with Wall Street, his expansion of the invasion into Afghanistan, expanding the war into Pakistan and Yemen, and the continuation of the Clinton/Bush polices that disregard the articles of the U.S. Constitution protecting our privacy and illegal search and seizure.

HOPIUM STILL EFFECTIVE AS A TONIC
It seems as though the Hopium hasn’t worn off. The smoke-free den loaded with sleepy Democratic voters are silent. I haven’t seen any messages from these critical observers since Obama took office. I no longer read short rants filled with vitriol for our current president, his administration and their decisions despite the fact this administration is acting almost exactly like, or even WORSE (there, I said it, WORSE) than our last president during his tenure as our head mullah. Apparently being a Democrat means one can absolve oneself from guilt and responsibility. Naomi Wolfe said it best, “We are all torturers in America .. not only do Congressional Democrats have blood on their hands – but so do we, the American people.”

Given the silence of my Democratic friends, I’d like to take the opportunity at the end of 2009, to point out some of Obama & Company’s antics, actions and decisions that would have caused outrage if the former president was in office. They have made decisions that have made a bad “bailout” even worse, expanded the war in Afghanistan to include Pakistan (as he stated in his campaign), Yemen, and their continued support of policies and laws that have essentially eliminated privacy. Some pundits have suggested that the Obama administration – with their endorsement of warrantless wiretapping, detainment without just cause, seizure of personal property without the person being suspected of any wrong doing - have instituted the last of the 10 easy steps to fascism (Number 10: Suspend the rule of law.)

DEMOCRACY IMPORTANT ABROAD BUT NOT AT HOME
Obama condemns violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Iran but when it happens here in the U.S., he is silent. And when G20 demonstrators in Philadelphia get stuffed into an unmarked squad car by guys in camouflage, Obama is silent. See

When the Feds and police arrest an anti-war activist for “for allegedly listening to a police scanner and relaying information on Twitter to help protesters avoid heavily-armed cops — an activity the State Department lauded when it happened in Iran,” Obama had nothing to say - just like Congress, his supporters, and Republicans.

The upcoming year will be a interesting one, indeed. Take a look at some of the news from 2009.

America’s war machine is the one bright spot in the economy. Both the Democrats and Republicans in Congress must love that upward tick in that sector of the U.S. economy. Forget about America being a technology, manufacturing, service or consumer economy. It is all about the business of war. To date, over $915.1 billion dollars have been spent in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Obama budget shows a $130 billion request for more spending. And then there’s the Pakistan and the drones. Did you (and moreover, do you care or have you written to your leader( given the fact that “More C.I.A. drone attacks have been conducted under President Obama than under President George W. Bush.”

And why not Pakistan or Iran or even Mexico? This has been Obama’s position for at least five years. In September 24 2004, the Chicago Tribune reported that “Obama would consider missile strikes on Iran: U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama suggested Friday that the United States one day might have to launch surgical missile strikes into Iran and Pakistan to keep extremists from getting control of nuclear bombs. Obama, a Democratic state senator from the Hyde Park neighborhood, made the remarks during a meeting Friday with the Tribune editorial board.”

He continued his hard line against Iran in 2008 and also noted then that he wanted to expand the war in Afghanistan and add Pakistan to the mix. See Tom Hayden’s piece on this position.

Yemen is also in the mix given the Obama’s administration’s effort and money. Over $70 million this year is budgeted for operations in Yemen.

I won’t mention Obama’s commitment to Israel, and his lack of action on their continued expansion of their territory and state terrorism acts against the Palestinians, Lebanese and Jordanians. Or the continuing operations of U.S. Armed forces bases in at least 60 countries (although the number is probably in excess of 150 countries if you count U.S. personnel in “advisory” roles.)

WALL STREET STILL RINGING IN TO STEER ECONOMIC RECOVERY
While it is not uncommon to have Wall Street professionals involved in U.S. administration positions that make decisions on the financial sector, it is significant to note that Timothy Geithner, Larry Summers, and Rahm Emmanuel are still well tied into Wall Street, still making money from Wall Street, and involved in making policies dictated by their former employers and associates.

In addition to blowing off members of Congress to take calls from Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs execs and others, Summers, Geithner and Emmanuel are making Tammany Hall and Chicago-style politics look like child’s play. In April 2009, the Wall Street Journal reported that in 2008 a hedge fund paid Summers $5.2 million. THE WSJ article stated, “The disclosure -- in a financial report that is required for federal office holders -- comes as Mr. Summers is involved in shaping the Obama administration's policy decisions on the financial meltdown as well as the broader recession. Among the many decisions the economic team has wrestled with has been whether to step up regulation of hedge funds, one of the most contentious subjects during a summit of world leaders this week. European nations pushed for tougher rules, while the Obama administration preferred a less stringent approach.”

The Associated Press reports that Geithner had at least eighty contacts with the firms’ top executives during the first seven months of his tenure. Geithner has been widely criticized for his Wall Street ties and his role in the bailout as the former head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Former New York governor Eliot Spitzer has gone on record about the financial crisis and how it was handled by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Bernanke and Geithner “actually built and participated in creating the structure that now has collapsed,” Spitzer said.

Emmanuel was a board member of Freddie Mac when the company started buying risky sub-prime loans, a practice that has contributed to the current foreclosure crisis. The Chicago Tribune states “Emanuel's Freddie Mac involvement has been a prominent point on his political résumé, and his healthy payday from the firm has been no secret either. What is less known, however, is how little he apparently did for his money and how he benefited from the kind of cozy ties between Washington and Wall Street that have fueled the nation's current economic mess.”

But it is the support for the war industry where the Obama Administration really shines. Vice Admiral Jeffrey A. Wieringa, Director of Security Cooperation Agency, Department of of Defense said, “With Fiscal Year 2009 figures tallied, and looking back at our projected total sales of $40 billion, we can take pride in the fact we achieved a new record of $37.9 billion in sales.”

And in the future, we will be adding the new darling of the economic geniuses to the list of toxic assets like hedge funds, and sub-prime loans: the carbon credit market which some people believe means making the forest work harder. It won’t even assuming the global warming folks are right. As Karl Denninger notes, “To actually stop the increase in CO2 emissions we would have to find some way to compel the Asians and Africans to not increase their CO2 emissions.” See Carbon Credits: An Economic Scam

RIGHT TO DISSOLVE RIGHTS
U.S. citizens (and anyone anywhere else) can be wiretapped without a warrant, detained without just cause, and our property can be seized for no reason even if we are beyond suspicion of committing a crime. Obama has endorsed these policies and upped the ante using the bag of federally approved tricks including:

Obama Administration Embraces Bush Position on Warrantless Wiretapping and Secrecy

Homeland Security: We can seize laptops for an indefinite period

Obama to Use Current Law to Support Detentions

“Sprint Nextel provided law enforcement agencies with customer location data more than 8 million times between September 2008 and October 2009, according to a company manager who disclosed the statistic at a non-public interception and wiretapping conference in October.” http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/10/twitter-anarchist/

RECOMMENDED READING
It Takes a Pillage, by Nomi Prins

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein

Confronting Collapse, The Crisis of Energy and Money in a Post Peak Oil World A 25-Point Program for Action

The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot by Naomi Wolfe

Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil by Michael C. Ruppert

Nuclear Weapon Effects Calculator

Federation of American Scientists: Obama Administration Documents on Secrecy Policy

What Liberal Media by Eric Alterman

Hopeover DIctionary